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From the Ashes, an Empty Promise

The Rev. Arthur Harris, who is 85, said that his age has made it difficult to secure a loan to finish construction of his church.Credit
Raymond McCrea Jones/The New York Times

When a fire ravaged the Prince of Peace Missionary Baptist Church in Queens one winter day, the pastor of the small congregation vowed to rebuild. That was in 1997. Ten years later, a new building large enough to accommodate 250 worshipers, three times the congregation’s size, had risen on the site in St. Albans.

But this is not a feel-good story of destruction and rebirth.

For more than two years, the church’s new brick building has stood as nothing but a vacant shell, with its boarded-up windows and scraggly lawn in stark contrast to the well-kept homes on the rest of the block. The congregation, led by the Rev. Arthur Harris, now holds services in a rented storefront that once housed a barbershop.

“Reverend Harris said the fire wasn’t going to stop us,” said Katherine McBride, who has been a member of the church since 1983. “He said we were going to persevere.”

The church has run into financial problems that have left the construction project in limbo. In recent months, church members have mailed 220 letters seeking donations from other churches and from celebrities like Bill Cosby, Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey. They have received $600 in response, none of it from celebrities. The church has also sought help from its influential neighbors, including Representative Gregory W. Meeks, who lives next to the church, and City Councilman Leroy G. Comrie Jr., who lives two blocks away.

“The bottom line is the reverend has no money, and he owes me money,” said Richard Dennis, the builder who broke ground on the project in 2004 only to stop work in 2007 when the church failed to get a loan to complete the job.

Prince of Peace began humbly in 1970, meeting on the second floor of Mr. Harris’s home, but the congregation kept growing and eventually moved into the building that was destroyed.

The fire erupted before dawn on Dec. 28, 1997, on the second floor of the church, on 109th Road near 194th Street. It was a Sunday, and Mr. Harris, who expected to preside over services that morning, was still at home in Ozone Park.

“I had a member who lived right next door to church, and she called and told me that the church was on fire,” Mr. Harris recalled. “My wife and I got in the car and went over there. The building was still ablaze. I said, ‘Lord don’t let it burn down the community.’ ”

The fire did not spread, but it gutted the building that the congregation had occupied for nearly 15 years. The fire was deemed accidental, Mr. Harris said, and the church collected about $100,000 in insurance money.

But new and existing expenses consumed that money nearly as quickly as the fire had destroyed the building. “We spent $48,000 to take down the building,” Mr. Harris said. “We spent $36,000 to pay off the mortgage.”

Photo

For more than two years, the churchs new brick building has stood as nothing but a vacant shell with boarded-up windows and a scraggly lawn.Credit
Raymond McCrea Jones/The New York Times

Still, the congregation was determined to rebuild, buying blueprints for a new building, hiring an accountant to prepare financial reports and selling off parts of its large lot to raise construction money.

The councilman who represented the neighborhood at the time, Archie Spigner, referred Mr. Harris to Mr. Dennis.

“I knew he wouldn’t recommend anyone who was not honorable,” said Mr. Harris, who would later agree to sell Mr. Dennis some of the church’s property. In 1999, Mr. Dennis bought one strip of land, which he divided into four lots, building a single-family home on each. He continued buying church-owned parcels and wound up building nine houses, which he sold for roughly $3 million, according to city records. The church kept one property for its new building.

When they broke ground in 2004, the church had $400,000 in proceeds from the land sales, about half of what was needed to build the new church, Mr. Harris said. The project began, and both men were confident that the church could obtain a loan for the remainder of the cost.

The plans for the new church, though far from lavish, called for several expensive features: a large, open sanctuary, a baptismal well deep enough for full immersion, and a finished basement.

The church had been promised a loan by Community Capital Bank in Brooklyn, but the deal fell through when the bank was acquired by Carver Federal Savings Bank, the minister said. And Mr. Harris, who is 85, said that his age may have contributed to the bank’s reluctance to make a loan.

“We had $400,000 on hand,” he said. “We owned the land. I thought we’d be able to get a loan for the rest.”

For now, the building’s exterior is largely completed, but work on the inside has barely begun. Exposed aluminum studs ring the sanctuary. A platform for an altar rises at the front of the church. Lights and other building materials are stacked in the middle of the sanctuary.

Mr. Dennis estimates that it would cost about $300,000 more to finish the job — on top of $106,000 that the church already owes him for the work that has been completed. “This was a good-intentioned deed that has not gone well,” he said. “I told them when they get more money, I’d be glad to go back and finish it.”

The congregation has dwindled to about 30 members. “Quite a few died,” Mr. Harris said. “Others got discouraged that we didn’t go back to our sanctuary and stopped attending.”

But the minister, sustained by his faith, believes his church will be finished.

“It’s a miracle they’ve stayed together this long and still have got confidence we’re going to rebuild,” he said. “I surely want to make this happen for my flock. They have stuck in this with me.”